Maternities in foreign lands: A scoping review of the experiences of migrant and refugee women

Context and Objective: Maternal morbidity and mortality among migrant and refugee women surpass those of women in host countries. This scoping review aimed to map their experiences in maternity units of host countries. Methods: Following the structuring of the research question, the EBSCOhost and Scopus databases were used for study retrieval. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined a priori. The selection involved the evaluation of titles, abstracts, and full texts. Results: From the six selected articles, it was identified that the experiences of migrant and refugee women are associated with the attitudes of healthcare professionals, the quality of information provided, communication challenges, and clinical interventions. Conclusions: The experiences of migrant and refugee women in maternity units of host countries are influenced by clinical and communicational factors. Improving the efficacy of healthcare provided to this population requires the adaptation of hospital policies, investment in the continuous training of professionals to offer culturally sensitive care, active participation of these women in clinical decisions, and reinforcement of health literacy.